Helpful Accessories for the Roku 3

If you’ve just purchased a Roku 3, or if you are thinking about purchasing one, then there are a couple of important accessories that you should consider buying to go along with them. One of these accessories is necessary, but the other three are optional.

The optional accessories, however, serve to make your experience with the Roku 3 better, and are something that you should consider to more fully integrate the Roku 3 into your home entertainment system setup.

HDMI cable

The Roku 3 is going to connect to your HDTV via an HDMI port on the back or side of the television. However, the HDMI cable is not included with the Roku 3, which could leave you in a frustrating situation when the Roku 3 arrives at your house, as you will not be able to set it up and start watching your content. Amazon sells HDMI cables at a very low price, and they will even ship for free if you have Amazon Prime.

Roku Mounting Kit

The Roku 3 is a very small and sleek looking device, but you may decide that you don’t want it resting on your TV stand, or you might have your TV mounted on the wall and there isn’t anywhere to conveniently place the Roku. This mounting kit is affordable, easy to install, and a good choice if you want to discreetly hide your Roku 3. Plus, because of the technology that the Roku 3 uses for its’ remote control, there aren’t any issues with the device being hidden behind the TV. The remote is still able to control it without a problem. Check pricing on the Roku mounting unit here.

Portable External Hard Drive

If you have videos stored on your computer, such as digital home videos that you’ve recorded, then you can take advantage of the USB port on the Roku 3 to watch them with a portable external hard drive. Follow the instructions here to download the Roku USB player channel, then simply connect the external hard drive to the Roku 3’s USB port. I prefer portable USB external hard drives for this purpose, such as this 1 TB model, because they can draw power from the Roku 3, which means you won’t also need to connect it to a power source.

Noise-Cancelling Headphones

One of the more interesting features of the Roku 3 is the headphone jack on the remote control. This allows you to connect a pair of headphones to the headphone jack, which will mute the audio coming from the TV and re-direct it to the headphones connected to the remote. This is ideal for people that like to watch TV in bed, but share their bed with someone that prefers silence. Most headphones will work, such as these noise-cancelling ones.